I'm Lauren McCullough and this is good roots.

Agritourism is a field that is growing in popularity as producers tried to diversify and increase profits.

Simply stated, agritourism connects agricultural production with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm or ranch or any other business for the purposes of entertaining and educating those visitors.

In this episode, we'll visit two locations here in Arkansas and find out what makes them unique and how they plan to keep visitors coming back.

Our first stop, Subiaco Abbey.

Monks have long been responsible for making and keeping alive some of the world's most exciting food traditions and the ones here at Subiaco are no exception.

Subiaco Abbey has existed since 1878, relatively young compared to the medieval monasteries of Europe, but no less traditional.

It's a Benedictine monastery, a sect known for its traditions of growing.

Cooking and eating.

My name is Father Richard Walz.

I am a monk of Subiaco Abbey.

We have a combination between the solitary life and the active Apostolic life.

We are open to the community.

We have a high School for Boys.

We also have a retreat center so a good number of people come here for retreats.

We like to have people come here and visit.

It gives them an opportunity to see what our life is like and also to give them a chance to slow down to get out of their lives and to just kind of relax a little bit.

About three years ago we started brewing beer here and we sell our beer in a taproom which is located on the property.

Kind of at the edge of the farm.

In the United States, all but three states have actually visited our tap room, but it's more than just our beer.

People come in and they have the opportunity to buy Monk made products like woodworking or hot sauce.

We've have Peterborough down there brewery has ever possibility of being something that will actually help to support the monastery.

I'm very much in favor of trying to do things that will help support us.

Brother Sebastian, we are at the very first stage of brewing some beer.

So what do we what is going on right now?

So we're getting ready to grind the grains that we're going to use to make our amber beer.

This is a caramel 100 grain, so we're going to grind it.

We're going to break it apart so that when we put it in the pot to seep, it'll have an opportunity to convert the starches into sugars.

It's going to be loud, isn't it?

It's going to be a little bit loud.

And here we go.

What we've got here now are all those grains that have been ground together and you can see how the holes have just opened up and that'll help it.

Convert that to sugar a lot faster.

How often do you guys brew?

We try to brood three to four times a week.

Last year sales kind of help us drive that number.

Everybody knows.

Last year in March when Kovid really kind of hit its first peak, we decided as a monastery talking with our Abbot that it would probably be best for us to shut down the brewery for a little while, and.

To kind of see what was happening in the community.

So we decided to do that and we actually stayed completely shut down until mid June and then this past weekend we opened back up so we were completely open inside seating.

Being able to drink pints on the property, not just outside, and it was a really good response.

So I'm out in the garden and I'm surrounded by these beautiful pepper plants right now.

It's still a little early in the season, but in just a few days these will all be full of fabulous habanero Peppers.

Since 2003, the monks here have created a flaming hot sauce called moxos.

Father Richard Walz is love for habanero.

Peppers began in South America and followed him to Arkansas.

These are smoked and frozen from last season, right?

We grow the Peppers here from seed that I brought from Belize 18 years ago.

I did spend a good number of years in the country of Belize because Subiaco was trying to start a monastery.

These things in vinegar tend to blow up like little balloons and so I like to just cut them in half and put them in the pot to get ready to make some monks us 'cause we want to try to make a little bit here, right?

Sure all right absolutely.

So we cut everything up, boil it and then and then blend it.

It is a monk holding 2 bottles with three.

X is on them and fire coming out of his ears.

So that makes me feel very confident, right?

You want to try it on a cracker and I'm trying the smoked smoked right.

I'm already crying.

Oh, maybe you want more than you think.

Out.

That's good, but the heat good.

I think you've got a good thing here it is.

You've got a good thing here, that right?

Well, I think that Arkansas is lucky and happy that you came back and brought your hobby of Peppers.

Happy to write.

Brought the Peppers with me.

You don't necessarily need to have hundreds of acres to provide an Arkansas agricultural experience.

I'm at Urbana Farmstead, just outside of Little Rock where Margie Ramondo has created a true urban Oasis.

I am Margie Armando.

I'm the chef and the farmer here at Urbana Farmstead.

This farmstead has a market, a farm and a kitchen.

Well, they're in the market.

We sell not only the produce that we grow here and a few other local farmers, but we also do some of the value.

Add things like Cam things, pickled things, preserves, and apothecary products.

Equity tourism is an opportunity for me to share my farm and also all the experiences around the farm.

You like to literally cut herbs?

Yep, for someone when they come out here, that's what they want.

Wants an herb, I'll just figure out how much they want and that will literally cut it for them when it's time.

What I like about this little area is it's got a little bit of everything, so I've got the herbs I have.

The person one thing the pandemic did is it brought us all back to the memories of how it used to be when we all had gardens or when your grandparents had guards or when your grandparents had chickens run around and so people wanted to get close to that life again.

They've that brought back memories.

But what it did is it helped me shape the what I was doing here because I realized, well, geez, I've lived that life partly out of necessity as a child when we were very poor as an immigrant family and partly when I trained as a chef on farms doing preservation.

And I'm like, well, here it is.

This is the voice of Urbana Farmstead and the best part is it's less than an acre.

It's urban.

It's very urban.

It's used to be a junkyard that we converted into a farm.

And I tell people all the time.

You don't need 12 acres of rolling hills.

You don't need that.

So here is where you put your own spin on the three sisters.

That's right, tell me about that.

Well, the three sisters is typically squash and then a bean and also some kind of corn.

But I decided that I was going to add sunflowers, sunflowers such happy plants, and so I thought, why not?

The sisters are happy.

Let's throw a cousin in there so, but I just love to combine things that are number one or companion plants so they help each other grow.

They may nurture each other with nutrition or they may help with pest management.

You have put your fingerprint.

On a lot of things out here, it's a.

It's a really neat space.

You have a lot of visitors year round.

Yeah, they come out here for your market, but then also to learn from you and to purchase some of your goods.

It's just a big circle.

You're using everything and you're not wasting anything and you're sharing it with everybody.

It's all about building community.

It's not just my community of plants, but it's also sharing my knowledge and my the things that I've learned along the way with other people.

Most of our families have farmed in some fashion, whether it's.

Your parents or grandparents just go back.

I mean, that was a way of life, right?

So I'm lucky because my family in Sicily still farms.

We come from a farming family.

We grow grapes and we make wine, were Rimando is a family winery in Sicily, but we also grow vegetables and fruits.

Every time I go back and I try to spend about a month a year there.

Of course my family packs food and seeds, so it's great when you can preserve the seeds as a generation to generation.

And then see them flourish.

It's like this place is my all my little passions all in one little compound.

Arkansas agritourism comes in many shapes and forms, whether it's having a cold brew with country monks or learning how to live a healthy and happier life, you're sure to find an Arkansas farmer to glean from for good roots.

I'm Lauren McCullough.